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BUFFIN 






























Jody and Bing were very busy too. 

































BUFFIN 


By 

LEONE BARRETT 

/ 


Pictures by 

MARGARET A. GAUG 


JUNIOR PRESS BOOKS 

albertXwhitman 

Cr- 4 CO 

CHICAGO 

1935 








f&l 

. (isnszl- 




Lithographed in the U. S. A. 

SEP 161335- 

87002 j? R 










0 ^: 9'V'ic. 



S PRING had come and everyone was busy. The plants 
and flowers and birds were busy. The friendly little 
robin with his trim brown coat and his reddish-brown 
vest was very busy. He was carrying tiny twigs and straw 
for his nest. 

The little Hawthorn Tree that stood proudly by the front 
gate bowed politely to everyone who passed. Even it was 
busier than usual. 

It seemed that the Hawthorn Tree would never stop 
changing its dress. First it was a plain gray winter one. Next 
it had little pink bud-dots all over it. Then it had a green, 
fluffy dress. Now it had a beautiful white ruffled one, and 
it did smell so sweet. 


5 


















Jody and Bing were very busy too. They were talking 
and thinking and then talking again. How could they help 
the Fresh-Milk-For-Babies Fund? 

Jody was a year and a half older than Bing. Of course, 
in a year and a half, a girl learns much. That is what Jody 
thought. 

Bing, a year and a half younger, thought that being a 
boy he knew quite a lot too. 

“Bing!” said Jody, “no need to have a lemonade stand. 
We couldn’t raise money for the Fresh-Milk-For-Babies 
Fund that way.” 

“But, Jody!” said Bing, “a lemonade stand is the best way.” 

“The best way for you to have all the lemonade you 
want. Remember the last one?” said Jody accusingly. 

With a strange feeling in his stomach, Bing quickly sat 
down on the ground. He was glad to see Buff coming to¬ 
ward them. Buff was their big, soft, yellow cat. Bing thought 
that he could talk to Buff, and stop any more conversation 
about the lemonade stand. 
















“Remember the last one?” said Jody accusingly. 






















Bing was busily talking aloud to Buff. Inside he was 
just as busily saying to himself: “If we had been selling lem¬ 
onade that time for the Fresh-Milk-For-Babies Fund, I never, 
never should have drunk all the lemonade. But I suppose 
right now the less I say about a lemonade stand the better.” 

“Now I know, Bing,” said Jody, her eyes flashing. “Let’s 
make a toy, a nice soft, yellow pussy-cat toy. A pretty one 
that would look like Buff. We could sell it to the woman 
at the Toy Bazaar, and we could make some money for the 
Fresh-Milk-For-Babies Fund.” 

Bing surprised Jody by saying, “Yes, Jody! You’re 
right.” 

Just then Bing had a thought. Bing often had a thought. 

“You know, Jody! I have a better idea than that pretty 
yellow pussy-cat.” 

Jody was disappointed, but she tried not to show it. 
She said as politely as she could, “Well, what is your idea, 
Bing?” 












Bing felt very proud to be consulted. When you are a 
year and a half younger, it gives you an important feeling 
to be consulted. 

“Ahem-m!” went Bing, thinking fast. Then “Ahem-m-m!” 
he went again. He wanted to be sure it was a good idea be¬ 
fore he told it to Jody. Then he stroked Buff’s back and 
said, “Nice little Buffy!” 

Inside he was still thinking. Then he very carelessly 
kicked the grass, so as to have more time to think, and finally 
he said, 

“I think we should make a toy airplane and sell that. 
Then we could have money for our Fresh-Milk-For Babies 
Fund.” 

“Bingy!” Jody always said Bingy when she really wanted 
to have Bing think her way. She found it was usually suc¬ 
cessful. “I do not believe we could ever make a toy airplane 
that anyone would want to buy.” 

“Maybe not, but I’d like to make an airplane anyway 


9 










and just see. Maybe someone might want to buy it,” said 
Bing, shaking his head soberly. 

“Bi-in-gy!” Jody’s tone would have melted a heart harder 
than Bing’s. “Do you re-a-lly think so?” 

Bing really thought so. But that last, coaxing Bi-in-gy 
was too much, so he said, “Well then, Jody, let’s comper- 
mise.” 

Bing’s tone of voice sounded to Jody as if her idea had 
won, but that word “compermise,”—what did it mean? 

When you are a year and a half older, you should know 
the meaning of long words, even words as long as “com¬ 
permise.” 

Jody took a chance and said, “Bingy! You are the nicest 
brother to compermise. Now we shall make a soft, yellow 
pussy-cat.” 


10 














“Well then, Jody, let's compermise.” 





























. 


Bing was so surprised that he almost dropped Buff. He 
jumped up from the ground where he had been sitting. He 
gasped once or maybe twice and said, “I didn’t say we were 
going to make a soft, yellow pussy-cat. I said we were go¬ 
ing to compermise. Don’t you know what compermise 
means?” 

He looked at Jody. He tried to look very wise. 

“Well—” said Jody. 

Then suddenly she whirled on her heel and started run¬ 
ning toward the house, calling back to Bing. “I am going to 
get a drink of water.” 

Bing was as glad to see Jody leave at that particular 
moment as Jody was to get away. By that time he was not 
sure he had used the correct word. Even if he had, he could 
not tell Jody exactly what it meant. 



















The faster Jody ran, the faster her brain worked. “Com- 
permise, compermise,” it kept saying. She must have heard 
that word, but where had she heard it and what did it mean? 

As she reached the kitchen, in walked Nurse Dinah. She 
was very fat and very black. Her teeth were as white as her 
starchy dress and her trim cap. 

“Dinah, what does compermise mean?” 

“Compermise?” said Dinah, her eyes growing rounder 
and bigger than ever. “Land sake, chile, don’ ask Dinah. I 
doesn’t know, honey, honest I doesn’t. But in yondah is 
yo’ Mummy, jes’ come in from shoppin’. She sho’ kin tell 
you.” 

Jody ran to her mother and said, “Mummy! What does 
compermise mean?” 


13 






1 


“Compermise?” said Mother. 

“Yes,” Jody explained, “Bing said that. When I wanted 
to make a soft, yellow pussy-cat and he wanted to make an 
airplane, he said that we would compermise.” 

Mother then told Jody that she had heard Father tell 
Bing a story the night before. It was the story of how two 
great chiefs had compromised on a very important matter so 
that they would have no war. 

“You see, dear,” said Mother, “the word is compromise. 
Bing means that you two together will make a toy, and half 
of it will be a soft, yellow pussy-cat which is what you want, 
and the other half of it will be an airplane which Bing wants. I 
do not quite know how you are going to do it, but you 
and Bing decide that for yourselves. Only, dear, say ‘com¬ 
promise’ to Bing in a way that he will know the word is com¬ 
promise.” 








“Only, dear, say ‘compromise’ to Bing in a way that he 
will know the word is compromise.” 















► 

► 

When Bing saw Jody returning, he found comfort again 
in stroking Buff’s yellow fur and pretending that there had 
been no talk about “compermise.” 

He thought he probably had used it wrong, so the thing 
to do now was to keep Jody from saying any more about it. 

But before he could possibly think of anything to say to 
her, she sat down beside him and said, “It will be fun to 
compromise about that soft, yellow pussy-cat and the air¬ 
plane. But the trouble is that we can’t make an airplane 
look like a pussy-cat, nor a pussy-cat look like an airplane.” 

“Yes!” said Bing, greatly relieved and quite proud that 
he had the general idea of the word compermise, even 
though he was a year and a half younger. “We can think 
that out. A pussy-cat and an airplane do not look much 
alike. But I do want to make something that I think will 
take me on a great adventure.” 

“I suppose you would think that. But I want to make 
something I can play with right here at home,” said Jody. 

They both began to laugh together when Bing said, “But 
it is not going to be ours when it is finished anyway.” 







“But,” said the practical Jody, “unless it is nice when 
it is finished, no one will want to buy it; and then we can’t 
give any money to help the Fresh-Milk-For-Babies Fund.” 

“Yes, it must be nice when we finish it. But I still think 
that an airplane pussy-cat can be just as nice as a soft, yel¬ 
low pussy-cat, if we are very careful how we make it,” de¬ 
cided Bing. 

Together they ran in to tell Mother. Never before had 
they planned anything that sounded like so much fun, and 
never before had they planned anything that Mother thought 
was so nice. 

Their fingers were tingling to begin to make a toy all 
by themselves, one nice enough for them to sell. But first 
they must earn some money to buy some cloth to make the 
toy. Mother reminded them of that. 

Mother, Jody, and Bing sat in silence and thought hard. 
Finally Mother told them that if they would go out in the 
garden and help Thomas edge the pansy bed, they could earn 
some pennies. That would be a start, and before long she 
was sure they could earn enough to buy the cloth for their 
new toy. 


17 





w w m w 


w m 


w w 


Working with Thomas was always such fun. He always 
told them such funny tales and sang such funny little songs. 
Jody and Bing liked the way Thomas would laugh at his own 
tales and songs. He just laughed until he shook all over. 

So Thomas worked and talked and laughed and shook. 
Jody and Bing worked and laughed and shook too. 

Bing tried to laugh like Thomas, for it looked as if 
Thomas was getting so much fun out of his laugh. 

While they were carefully working, Thomas sang this 
funny song to the “clip, clip” of his shears as he busily 
trimmed the rose bushes: 


“Sang the funny woolly puppy to the china cat, 
‘Well! Well! What do you think of that? 

You me-eow and I bow-bow, 

But you can’t do either until you know how.’ 

“‘Well! Well! That is that!’ 

Sang the saucy china cat, 

‘ You can’t me-ow. You don’t know how. 

You can only go bow-wow.’ ” 



adlfci mirfhi A 

























Working with Thomas was always such fun. 




























Finally Jody and Bing began to sing with Thomas. They 
all worked and sang together about the woolly puppy and 
the china cat. 

And in spite of all Thomas’ funny tales and funny songs 
and their laughing and their shaking and their singing, the 
pansy bed was neatly edged. 

Late that afternoon two very tired children went into the 
house for their baths. Dinah scrubbed such muddy knees 
and muddier hands, but never were knees and hands too 
muddy for Dinah to get clean. So out of their baths they 
came, clean and shining. Tired but still excited, they waited 
for Father because they were so anxious to tell him of their 
new plan. 

No sooner was Father in the house than both his big 
hands were filled with little hands. On each of his knees 
was seated an excited little person. Quickly they told him 
of their plans. 

“Daddy, the pansy bed is edged now, but we need lots 
more pennies. What more can we do?” 

“Pennies are scarce nowadays,” said Father as he so¬ 
berly shook his head, and Bing and Jody soberly shook 
their heads too. 

Of the three, Bing looked the most serious. But his hard 
thinking brought a surprising idea. It was surprising to 
Father and to Mother and to Dinah and to Jody too. 


20 



This thought came very suddenly to Bing. He started 
to say it just as suddenly. The result was that it caught in his 
throat. Dinah had to rush for water. Mother had to hold 
up his hands. Father had to pat him hard on the back. 

Bing was still red in the face and a little short of breath 
when he started to tell his surprising ideaJ 

“Here is a way I can make money every day, Daddy. If 
you let me do this, it will save my having to think so hard 
again.” 

That was his best argument. No father wants to see his 
only son choking over a too-hard thought and a too-quickly- 
said idea. 

“Now listen, Daddy,” said Bing. “I want to help Thomas 
shine your car every morning until we have all the money 
we need to make our compermise toy.” 

“The job is yours, son,” said Father with a pleased smile. 
“Only what do you say to making that a compromise toy in¬ 
stead of a compermise toy?” 

“Compromise it is, Daddy,” said Bing, as he gave Jody a 
side glance. He hoped she had not heard. But Jody and 
Mother exchanged an understanding glance, too. 

And then Jody had an idea. It was not such a quickly- 
said idea, so it was voiced in a much safer way than was 
Bing’s. 




“Every morning let me hang fresh towels in the bath¬ 
room and dust my bedroom. Will you, Mother?” 

Mother agreed to this also. 

Such a busy pair of children they were the next morning 
and many mornings afterward They worked and talked and 
planned how they were going to make an airplane pussy-cat. 

Then came the evening when Father helped the chil¬ 
dren count their pennies. To their delight they found that 
they had enough to buy the cloth for their toy. 

Carefully, and still compromising, they drew a large pic¬ 
ture. It was just the size their new toy was to be. It had a round 
head with two perky ears on it. It stood on its hind legs 
which really looked more like the rudder of an airplane than 
they looked like hind legs. This was Bing’s idea. 

When the toy stood on its hind legs, the front legs looked 
like arms, only they were held straight out at the sides. That 
made them look like airplane wings all ready to fly. This 
was Bing’s idea too. Then they cut around the pencilled line 
and they had a paper pattern for their toy. 
















Carefully, and still compromising, they drew 
a large picture. 




It was a thrilling moment when they laid the paper pat¬ 
tern on the bright yellow cloth. They then started to cut the 
cloth. Mother made a few helpful suggestions. 

Jody cut out one side and Bing cut out the other side. It 
was hard for Jody to keep a straight face when she looked at 
Bing. 

Never had Bing worked so hard. First he crossed his legs 
like a tailor but his arms would not reach as far as they 
should. Next he knelt so that he could reach further, but he 
lost his balance and fell on his stomach. He lay all sprawled 
out. His arms and feet were flying, but he still clutched the 
scissors. 

Suddenly Dinah was standing anxiously over him. She 
turned him right side up and he soberly started to cut again. 

After the bright yellow cloth was cut and the little rough 
edges all neatly trimmed, Jody had another idea. Bing was 
too tired by this time to do anything but just sit and listen. 
That shows how hard Bing had worked on the cutting. For 
when Bing just sat and listened Bing was a very tired Bing. 

“We should name this new toy, now that it is really be¬ 
ginning to be a toy,” said Jody. “It will be even more fun to 
work on if we name it and don’t have to call it ‘it’ all the 
time.” 


24 








Bing, still sitting on the floor and still looking a bit wilted, 
sighed, “I think so too.” 

Mother, Father, Dinah, Thomas, Jane-the-Cook, all were 
consulted, each in his turn. But no one could give a name 
that was good enough to suit everyone. 

The next day when they were still wondering what to 
name the toy, in walked Buff". His yellow tail was flying in 
the air, and his face was as round as that pattern they had 
cut out. 

“We’ll name it after Buff,” said Jody. 

“Yes,” said Bing, “only just a little different name, so 
we don’t get them mixed. Let’s call it ‘Buffin.’ ” 

Jody agreed, and Buffin was to be its name. 

Now that Bing was through with his cutting, his ideas be¬ 
gan to come back. He said, “Let’s print the name—B U F FIN 
—across the front, like an airplane.” 

It was a real task to print that name Buffin, but finally, 
with just a little help from Mother, it was finished to the 
very last letter. 

Buffin had such a funny little red button for a nose. His 
eyes twinkled like the shining lights on an airplane. That is 
what Bing thought at least. 




By the time Buffin was all finished, snow was on the 
ground, and it was just two days before Christmas. 

Jody and Bing were delighted with their bright, soft 
Buffin who had such a way of snuggling right into your arms. 

They wrapped him in c-r-rinkly paper and started down 
to the Toy Bazaar with him. Dinah was following so close that 
she looked like a spread eagle all ready to snatch her eaglets 
from any harm. 

“Jody, don’t you feel all nice and cozy inside?” said Bing. 

“Yes!” said Jody. “It was such fun to plan and to make 
Buffin. And now it is fun to know that all by ourselves we 
are going to earn money for the Fresh-Milk-For-Babies 
Fund. But—” and Jody’s eyes began to blink very hard as 
she added, “I hope whoever buys Buffin will be very good 
to him.” 

Then for the first time the thought of giving up their 
beloved Buffin came to Bing. A great tear suddenly splashed 
down a very pink cheek. But he bravely swallowed hard, 
took a deep breath, counted slowly to four and then back¬ 
ward again to one, and stopped the next tear before it had 
a chance to even start. 












“I hope whoever buys Baffin will be very good to him.” 































Jody, very tenderly, laid Buffin in Bing’s arms. Bing 
held him close. No one spoke. 

As they reached the Toy Bazaar, Jody said as carelessly 
as she could, “Dinah, let’s walk around the block. I believe 
Buffin might like a little more of this air and sunshine before 
he goes inside.” 

Dinah thought so too, and so did Bing. 

After they had walked around the block three times so 
that Buffin could have more nice air and sunshine, Bing—one 
and a half years younger—proved to be the hero. 

Just as they came to that dreaded door, Bing handed 
Buffin to Jody, and with his chin high and a smile on a very 
brave little face, he opened the door and said, “Well, here 
we are at the Toy Bazaar.” 

The Toy Bazaar Woman liked Buffin and agreed to buy 
him. She counted out a handful of bright new coins and 
gave them to Jody and Bing, and then she put Buffin in her 
shining glass case. 

As the two children went out the door, they kept their 
eyes straight ahead. Neither one quite dared to look back 
to where Buffin sat bravely smiling in the glass case. 

On their way home, Jody managed to say to Bing, “I am 
sure Buffin will be very brave and very good, no matter 
where he goes.” 






























“Yes,” said Bing. But Bing, being a year and a half 
younger, could not quite keep his lip from quivering. He 
hoped Jody would say no more about Buffin for awhile. 

When they returned home, everyone was busy getting 
ready for Christmas. Jane-the-Cook was making mince pies 
and Christmas tarts. Mother was in a room with the door 
closed. Jody and Bing could almost see Christmas surprises 
right through that closed door. 

Thomas was shining the silver platters for the turkey 
and the cranberry sauce and the plum pudding. He was 
humming merrily away as he rubbed. Jane frowned at him 
and said he sounded like an old buzz saw. But he kept right 
on humming and rubbing and smiling, much to Bing’s de¬ 
light, and Jody’s too. Everybody loved Thomas and his 
cheery smile and his cheery songs. 

Then on Christmas Eve stockings were hung and Christ¬ 
mas carols were sung and stories were told. Mother and 
Father told Bing and Jody how proud they were of their little 
son and daughter—how they had shown the true Christmas 
spirit when they gave away their beloved Buffin so that lit¬ 
tle hungry babies might have food. 

Jody held Mother’s hand tight, and for the moment all 
the hurt of giving up Buffin was gone. 


29 



























Jody and Bing took a long time that night to get to sleep. 
Their thoughts were so full of what was going to happen the 
next day. Just what would happen? Christmas Day was al¬ 
ways so full of surprises and every Christmas was nicer than 
the Christmas before. 

Jody opened her eyes the next morning just as Dinah 
came rustling in to shut the windows. Dinah was all smiles 
and starchier than ever. She had a sprig of holly jauntily 
tucked in her white cap. 

Before the children had their feet in their warm slippers 
and had soft robes wrapped around them, Mother and 
Father peeped through the door and called, “Merry Christ¬ 
mas!” 

Never were baths finished and clothes put on more 
quickly. Mother, Father, Jody, Bing, and Dinah—all dashed 
down the stairs together and stood breathlessly by the closed 
library door. 

Then—the door was flung open and there, in all its glory, 
stood a lighted Christmas tree. It was surrounded with so 
many wonderful things that Jody and Bing could not at first 
tell one wonderful thing from another. 

But two pairs of shining eyes singled out, first of all, a 
bright, yellow something. That something was—or was it? 
—yes, it was—Buffin!! But were they seeing double, or were 
there really two Buffins? 


30 




































































. 


Two pairs of glad hands each reached for Buffin, and 
each pair of glad hands held a Buffin, so there must have 
been two Buffins; and both Buffins looked exactly like the 
Buffin they had so carefully made. 

How could such a thing ever be—two Buffins so much 
alike that neither Jody nor Bing could tell them apart? 

For a few moments, even Bing was speechless. 

Jody was the first one to get her breath. “Mummy!” 
said Jody, “how did Santa Claus ever know that we made 
Buffin and wanted so much to have him for our own?” 

“Whee-ee!” Bing’s breath came back with a big, whistling 
gasp. “Santa Claus and his whole workshop must have 
worked all night to make another Buffin.” Bing was remem¬ 
bering the days and days he and Judy had spent in making 
Buffin. 

“How did Santa Claus ever happen to think of making 
another Buffin?” Jody and Bing said together. 

Such fun as Jody, Bing, and two smiling Buffins did have! 
To this day no one, except maybe Santa Claus, knows which 
Buffin Santa Claus made and which Buffin Jody and Bing 
made. 

Even Mother and Father can only shake their heads 
and say, “I wonder!” 


























































































































































































































































































































































































































